wpainterw

Two years ago I was in a rehab recovering from aortic valve surgery. In the last three months I have had surgery twice, once for prostate and the other for two hernias. In all three cases oxycontin was used as a post operative pain killer and, in the rehab, even as a sleeping pill. On discharge from the rehab I was given the pills which had been ordered for me but which had not yet been used, This package would have included a dozen or more oxycontin but I refused to accept them.
I see that up here in Massachusetts there is apparently a growing heroin epidemic which has resulted in numerous deaths. The press reports indicate that prescription oxycontin was in many cases a gateway drug for the heroin which, due to the increase in price of marijuana , has become relatively inexpensive.
My question is this- why do the hospitals and rehabs use oxycontin so freely, even discharge patients with unused pills of the stuff? Isn't there a less dangerous and less potentially addictive method to manage pain or promote sleeping? What's driving this? Are the pharmaceutical companies offering the caregivers incentives to prescribe this medication?

W.

Coldfusion

Just a comment on the past--when I was in prep school, they would give out codeine cough syrup at the infirmary.

And a note on the future--currently, opiates come only from poppies. Soon, genetic modification will allow yeast to produce opiates industrially. What will happen then?

letitgo

Its an interesting phenomenon. There is a documentary on HBO about Cape Cod and heroin.
On the bright side there is research as to why some become addicted and others do not.
A user in the documentary argues why they make a drug that can make you feel so good. I wonder if they could make a drug to numb pain and not provide a euphoric feeling.
Another interesting twist is as marijuana become decriminalized Mexico cartels are concentrating on heroin.

Upward2Enlightenment

It's not just in Massachusetts, the heroin epidemic is sweeping the US. Doctors and hospitals seem to prescribe opiate pain medication like it was aspirin. It is very easy to become addicted to it and the body gets used to it so more and more is required to achieve the same effect. Those pills are really just pharmaceutical heroin so when the prescription run out or stop it's cheaper to buy heroin on the street than pills.

Unfortunately there is no money in it for pharmaceutical companies to find a way to treat pain that is less addictive.

wpainterw

P.S. Today's New York Times has a front page story about the heroin epidemic along with an extensive discussion of the Gloucester Massachusetts Chief of Police getting national recognition for treating heroin and other drug offenders as a health problem rather than as a criminal problem. Treating them as criminals is enormously expensive (apparently $225 just to book and cover the expenses of the first day). I've heard mentioned a $50,000 annual figure for maintaining a prisoner in a maximum security unit, equal to tuition at a first rate college. Several years ago there were four Massachusetts home invasions by two persons, found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of 25 years (for one who took a plea) and around 55 years for the other who went to trial. The latter apparently had already served ten years in prison and during that time had been able somehow to maintain his heroin habit, at least according to the news reports. Both men were after prescription medications. The criminalization and particularly the mandatory sentences of the "war on drugs" have been an obvious failure.

W.